Sheet abstracting device for layboys



S p 9, 1961 P. HAIN ETAL SHEET ABSTRACTING DEVICE FOR LAYBOYS Filed Aug. 27, 1958 'IIIIIII/ fill/I 3m entor$ PAUL HAIN DANIEL J. KUEBEL (Ittorneg th r 3,000,631 SHEET ABSTRACTING DEVICE FOR LAYBOYS Paul Hain and Daniel J. Kuebel, Hamilton, Ohio, assignors to The Champion Paper and Fibre Company, Hamilton, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio 7 Filed Aug. 27, 1958, Ser. No. 757,522 3 Claims. (Cl. 271-64) The present invention relates to devices for piling paper in sheet form and more particularly to devices :for removing sample or defective sheets during the pil- Patent wrinkling or crumpling, not only the sheets actually-removed, but also damaging sheets preceding and following those removed. For this reason, when it has been attempted to remove one or more sheets in this manner, it has frequently been found necessary to stop operation of the machine until crumpled sheets couldbe removed and sheets on the pile and those being fed thereto could be straightened and smoothed out, before the piling operation could be continued. Further, when sheets are removed for use as samples or for inspection purposes, the wrinkling or crumpling commonly incidental to removal of the sheets by hand may largely, if

not completely, destroy their usefulness for such purposes.

In usual commercial operation, sheets of paper are piled by a device generally known as a layboy which commonly takes the sheets directly from a cutter which cuts a moving strip into sheets and delivers them insuccession to the layboy which forms them into piles of the desired height. The webs to be cut into sheets may be fed to the cutter from rolls or from other sources according to circumstances. In those cases where the paper webs being sheeted are fed to the cutter from rolls, paper from one or more rolls may be fedintothecutter simultaneously so that a corresponding number of sheets is cut off at each cut and delivered together to the layboy for the building of the pile. If it is desired to remove samples periodically for inspection and/ or other purpose, it is only necessary to take one group of simultaneously severed sheets to provide one; sample from each of the rolls being sheeted. In connection with a common type of layboy, the severed sheets are brought thereto, between travelling tapes which project the sheets along the surface of the pile being built, generally in a slightly downward path which converges towards the surface of the pile. The forward movement of the successive sheets is arrested, when they arrive successively in position over the pile, by a stop or barrier which prevents further movement of the sheets. The level of the upper surface of the pile being built is maintained approximately constant, as additional paper is piled thereon, by a usually automatic lowering of the supports for the bottom of the pile, until the pile has been built up to the desired height. When the pile has reached the desired height, operation is usually stopped while a suitable truck or the like is run under the skid or other structure on which the pile has been formed. The whole is then lowered onto the truck, disconnected from the lowering devices, removed, and replaced by another pile-supporting structure. The operation is then repeated.

It is the primary object of the present invention to the center of the length of the lower roll.

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provide means whereby one, or a number of sheets, can be abstracted without stopping or slowing down the piling operation and without crumpling the sheets removed or those immediately preceding or following, and to do this 'With a minimum of effort on the part of the operator.

To this end, in accordance with the present invention, a stop is provided in the usual position, for arresting the forward movement of successive sheets, and means are then provided for disabling this stop, at the will of the operator, to permit delivery of selected sheets to a location beyond that of the pile being built. Since the sheets discharged from the carrying tape often do not have enough momentum to keep them ahead of the following sheets and to carry them completely beyond the pile, means are provided, somewhat beyond the disabled position of said stop, for imparting continued forward motion to sheets which have been passed by disabling the stop. Means are further provided for receiving sheets, to which such continued forward motion has been imparted, after they have passed said motion imparting means.

Advantageously the aforesaid stop is made in the form v0f a plate-like gate having hinge means, desirably at the lower edge thereof, and means are provided for resiliently holding said gate-like stop in a substantially vertical position at the forward end of the pile being built, Where it functions as does the conventional stop. For disabling said stop, means are provided for swinging it on said hinge means, against the action of said resilient holding means, from its vertical to a substantially horizontal position, in a direction away from the pile being built, and out of the path of the sheets being delivered.

To impart continued forward movement to sheets passing said stop, any suitable known type of feeding means can be used. Advantageously, however, the motion imparting means comprises a pair of continuously rotating feed rolls, the lower one of which is positively driven and desirably reaches across the entire width of the widest sheets' to be handled by the device, while the upper roll is" desirably of narrower face and may, as hereinafter explained, be not more than a wheel located near The lower roll is advantageously provided with a rubber or similar surface, while the upper roll may be of more rigid material resting lightly on and being driven by the lower roll. The speed at which the rolls are driven is preferably adjustable so that it may be set at a value somewhat greater than that at which the sheets are delivered .by the tapes, whereby the sheet being carried forward by the rolls will not interfere With delivery of the succeeding sheet.

The invention will be better understood by reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of one embodiment of the present invention together with the associated parts of a known type of layboy with which the invention is adapted to be used.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view, drawn to a somewhat larger scale, taken on line 22 of FIG. 4, and showing the relationship of the hinged-gate-like stop, the guide plate, the feed rolls, and the receiving table when in operative position.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary plan view showing the gatelike stop an'd connected parts. 7

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the forward motionimparting rolls and their mountings, parts being taken in section on the line 4-4 in FIG. 1.

, Referring first to FIG. 1, a sheet of paper 111's illustrated as being delivered between continuously travelling tapes 12, from a known type of cutter or .other device, in the customary manner, onto the top of a pile 15 of similar sheets. It is to be understood that in the present specification and claims, the term a sheet of paper may refer either to a single sheet or to aplurality of sheets which are cut and handled as a single sheet, as is frequently the case in conventional cutters and layboys. When the forward end of sheet '11 reaches the corresponding end of the pile 15, its further movement is arrested by the stop 21 and the sheet settles down on top of the pile. The pile 15 is built up on a platform or skid 16 which is supported on cross members 17 which are suspended as by chains 18 from a superstructure (not shown) as in conventional layboys. By means well known in the art, the chains 18 are released, as the pile builds up, in a manner to maintain the top of the pile 15 at an approximately constant height relative to the fixed parts of the machine. By these means a pile 15 is built up to the desired height in the customary manner, and is then lowered onto a truck or other means for removal from the layboy.

As hereinbefore stated, means are provided in the present invention for disabling the stop to permit sheets to be fed across the top of the pile to a receptacle provided for sheets so removed. For this purpose the stop 21 is made of gate-like form rigidly attached at its lower edge to a hinge pin or shaft 22 rotatably mounted in bearings 23 carried on a cross member 24 supported on structural members 25 which depend fromthe superstructure (not shown) of the layboy in a usual manner such that their distance from the delivery tapes 12 can be adjusted to conform to various sheet lengths. The stop 21 is yieldingly held in its normal vertical position, illustrated in .solid lines in FIGS. 1, 2, Sand 3, by any suitable means such as torsion spring .26 which tends to rotate shaft 22 in a counter clockwise direction as seen in FIG. 2, and a stop 27 rigidly attached to shaft 22 in a position to contact cross member 24 and arrest the spring imparted rotation when the stop 21 is in its vertical position. To disable the stop 21, a handle 31 is fixed to shaft 22 in a position convenient to the operator. By turning the shaft 22 clockwise through an angle of approximately 90 deg, the stop 21 is moved to the position illustrated by broken lines in FIGS 1, 2, and 3, where it is clearly out of the path of sheets fed from the carrying tapes 12 across the top of pile 15.

When the stop 21 is disabled by rotation to its horizontal position, it desirably rests on a horizontal plate 35, hereinafter described, so thatparts 21 and 35 together form a guiding support for the moving sheets (see FIG.

For imparting continued forward motion to the selected sheets and moving them to a location beyond the pile 15, a feed roll 41 advantageously provided with a rubber cover 42, is mounted on a driven shaft 43 (see FIG. 2). Above and riding on roll 41 is a cooperating roll 45 which may be mounted on a freely rotating shaft 46. The shaft 13 carrying roll 41 is mounted for rotation in fixed bearings 47 and is provided with a driving pulley 48 (see FIG. 4). The shaft 46 carrying upper roll 45 is mounted for free rotation in bearings 50 which slide freely in a vertical direction in fixed standards '1. While roller 45 may be the same length as roller 41, there would be danger of an operators hands being caught between the rolls and the further danger of wrinkles being formed and pressed into the sheets. Accordingly, it is preferred to have the roller 45 substantially shorter than roll 41, and advantageously of not more than about one inch face so that it may be called a wheel. With such an arrangement sheets which may be misaligned on entry between the rolls may be straightened out without wrinkling.

For receiving the sheets passed by disabling the stop 21 and fed forward by rolls 41, 45, a stable, generally designated by numeral 60, is provided. This table may 1 V4 N be .of conventional construction and have a smooth and advantageously downwardly sloping top 61, provided with a stop 62 at the lower end to stop and align the sheets fed to it. In order to facilitate removal of completed piles, the table 60 is advantageously provided with wheels or casters 63 so that it may be easily rolled out of the way to allow 'free access to the layboy, and returned to operative position when a new receiver 16 is in position to start building another pile 15.

While the feeding rolls 41, 45 and their supporting elements 47, 5t 51, may be mounted on any suitable structure, they are advantageously mounted on the structure of table 60 to be movable therewith. For this purpose the standards 51 may be mounted on brackets 65 fixed to the framework of table 60. An adjustable speed driving motor 66, also mounted on the framework of table 61), serves by means of belt 67 and pulley 48 (FIG. 4) to drive the feed roll 41 at whatever speed is required to keep the sheets being passed ahead of and out of the reason-Whether because known or visibly defective, or

desired for sample, inspection, or other purpose-the operator simply operates handle 31 to rotate shaft 22 through an angle of approximately 9-9 deg. thus moving stop 21 to the substantially horizontal position indicated in broken lines in FIGS 1 and 2. There is then nothing to :stop the forward movement of the sheet '11 which therefore slides across the top of pile 15, over the then horizontal stop 21, and the horizontal plate 35 into the nip between rotating rolls 41 and 4-5 which feed the sheet forward and discharge it onto the sloping surface 61 of table 60 where 'it comes to rest against the stop 62. .Here the sheets may be permitted to accumulate into a pile, or be sorted, inspected, or discarded, in accordance with the purpose for which they were removed. This invention is thus found to greatly facilitate the abstraction of sheets for any purpose, and to make possible their abstraction without crumpling or otherwise damaging either the sheets removed or those in the pile.

When in the present specification and claims the stop 21 is described as plate-like it is to be understood to mean that the part or parts of its surface which serve to arrest the forward movement of the sheets, when they reach the position of pile 15, lie substantially in a common plane. Whether the stop 21 is in the form of a continuous fiat sheet, or of a series of fingers, or other convenient form, is immaterial from the standpofnt of the present invention.

We claim:

'1. A sheet abstraction device for association with a layboy for piling sheets of paper being fed thereto along the top surface of the pile being built, comprising a mobile frame adapted to be positioned adjacent said layboy on the opposite side thereof to that direction in which the sheets are fed to said pile, stop means disposed in the path of movement of said sheets for arresting movement of said sheets when they have reached a position directly over said pile, means for selectively dis- .abling said stop means to permit movement of the sheets beyond the location of said pile onto said frame, a sheet receiving surface carried by said frame for receiving said sheets, said surface sloping do'miwardly in one direction from said stop means, means disposed behind said stop .means and adjacent the higher edge of said surface for imparting continued motion to said sheets to move said sheets onto said sloping surface when said stop means is disabled to permit selected sheets to pass over and beyond the pile being formed on said layboy.

2. The combination defined in claim 1, wherein the means for imparting continued forward motion to sheets which pass the disabled stop, comprises a rotating roller and a relatively narrow faced rotating wheel riding centrally on the rotating roller, the two being vertically so disposed and rotating in such directions that sheets passing the disabled stop will enter the nip between said roller and said wheel and be carried through said nip and deposited on the receiving means.

3. The combination defined in claim 2, including driving means for said roller mounted on the said mobile frame.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 Baker Sept. 1, 1942 Martin et a1 Mar. 30, 1943 Matthews Jan. 16, 1945 Domville, et al. Jan. 1, 1946 Moore Sept. 9, 1947 Baver Dec. 8, 1953 Reinartz Mar. 19, 1957 Raeber Dec. 10, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS Germany Jan. 11, 1954 Germany Dec. 9, 1954 France Mar. 24, 1954 France June 17, 1957 

